The Pivot Report highlighted a major ‘Perception Gap’ between the heightened expectations of ‘Social Customers’ and the limited social media progress being made by the majority of companies. Social Consumers are fundamentally different from traditional consumers in the way they find and share information, the way they make purchasing decisions. They place more emphasis on the shared experiences of those they trust on social networks compared to corporate driven brand messages. They expect brands to respond to their socialized questions.

While there are a number of vanguard Social Businesses who have fully embraced the need for engagement, the majority of companies lag behind in execution. Most remain at an experimental stage in their use of social media.

The main findings of the Report, although US based, match our own thoughts based on our extensive experience of working at the coalface of social media in the UK and internationally over the last four years or so. While interest and enthusiasm for social media in the UK and other countries has grown rapidly, the majority of companies remain at an experimental/’testing the water’ stage of social media maturity. A broadcasting mentality prevails with social media being used as yet another PR platform for pushing messages AT rather than engaging WITH customers. Very few organisations have developed an integrated and coordinated Social Media Strategy fully aligned with and supportive of core business goals and objectives.

The Road to Nowhere

To avoid being on a ‘Road to Nowhere’ with your social media activities, we would recommend the following ten steps to ensuring that an agreed Social Media Strategy is in place; one that is fully supportive of your core business goals.

Step 1: ‘Be Social Before Doing Social’Step 2: Monitor/Evaluate Your Social Media LandscapeStep 3: Undertake an Internal Social Media AuditStep 4: Set up a Social Media Listening SystemStep 5: Develop a Social Media StrategyStep 6: Develop Action Plans for ‘Getting There’Step 7: Organisation, Resource and People AspectsStep 8: Implement the StrategyStep 9: Monitor and Evaluate PerformanceStep 10: Progress from Social Media Marketing to become a ‘Social Business’